bonny
adjective
pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.
bonny
American
[bon-ee]
/ ˈbɒn i /
Or
bonnie
adjective
bonnier,
bonniest
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Chiefly Scot. pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.
-
British Dialect.
-
(of people) healthy, sweet, and lively.
-
(of places) placid; tranquil.
-
pleasing; agreeable; good.
-
adverb
noun
bonny
1
British
/ ˈbɒnɪ /
adjective
-
dialect beautiful or handsome
a bonny lass
-
merry or lively
a bonny family
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good or fine
a bonny house
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(esp of babies) plump
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dialect considerable; to be reckoned with
cost a bonny penny
adverb
Bonny
2
British
/ ˈbɒnɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bonny
1425–75; late Middle English ( Scots ) bonie, perhaps < Old French bon good + -ie -y 1, perhaps by analogy with jolie jolly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And Coach Kliff Kingsbury, the bonny prince plucked from Texas Tech in 2019, was scheduled to receive his comeuppance by now.
From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2021
“It’s bonny, happy, chirpy, fun,” director Richmond says of the score, noting that it’s hardly what audiences will expect the witches to sing.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 5, 2018
Basically, Claire pulls the 18th century equivalent of a #yesallwomen campaign, and celebrates her victory by standing on a buttress and smiling vacantly at some wee bonny children.
From Time ● Aug. 16, 2014
"You're a bonny fellow to frighten children so," one of the regulars admonished him as he finished the tale.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2014
“Not at all—it bears the most gracious message in the world: for the rest, you are not my conscience-keeper, so don’t make yourself uneasy. Here, come in, bonny wanderer!”
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Vincenzo Italiano's players held their nerve better in the shoot-out, with Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolo Barella and Ange-Yoan Bonny all failing from the spot for Inter.
From Barron's ● Dec. 19, 2025
In light of the administration’s security strategy, the sale shows “its actions are aligning with its words,” said Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
Her mother, Bonny Pitson, said while she "would not stand" with the protesters she agreed with them.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
Lee Calvert stands in the living room of her daughter’s home in Bonny Doon, Calif., in May 27.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2025
A band began playing “That Bonny Blue Flag,” in Lee’s honor.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
While some of his ban mots may have grown bonnier in telling, and others may be wholly apocryphal, who can say for sure?
From Time Magazine Archive
“Not a bit, and you never will. You’ve grown bigger and bonnier, but you are the same scapegrace as ever.”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Well, checked cloth is bonnier than black broadcloth to some people.
From An Orkney Maid by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
"O, sic a geek she gave her head, And sic a toss she gave her feather; Man, saw ye ne'er a bonnier lass Before, among the blooming heather?"
From The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin, Volume 1. Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts by Cooper, James Fenimore
A pair of bonnier lasses could not have been found in the whole of Cape Colony!
From The War of the Axe Adventures in South Africa by Percy-Groves, J.
The prams of Britain are filled with the bonniest babies in living memory.
From Time Magazine Archive
So he suggested a cat instead, “the bonniest little cat ye ever did see.”
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
Miss Isabel was here then, and she and Miss Robina took great pains to get me the best and the bonniest.
From Frederica and her Guardians The Perils of Orphanhood by Robertson, Margaret M. (Margaret Murray)
I’m going to build a small house and kennels, and I’m going to marry Fanny—the bonniest lassie in all the world, sir.
From Annie o' the Banks o' Dee by Stables, Gordon
She was the reddest-cheeked, bluest-eyed, and bonniest girl that had ever come across the mountains, so Medicine Dog swore unanimously, at any rate.
From Woven with the Ship A Novel of 1865 by Brady, Cyrus Townsend
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
